How houseplants charmed a new generation of gardeners

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It seems not so long ago that smart interiors weren’t complete without artfully placed vases of cut flowers, but now a subtle, stylistic change is wrapping its leafy tendrils around the country’s most fashionable homes, shops and restaurants.

Where once houseplants were the province of an older generation who had the time, knowledge and space to tend them, they’re now proving popular with a younger, cooler crowd. Smart parties, weddings and launches are lush with jungly magnificence, provided by self-styled “plant decorators”.

Houseplants: not just for your mother's generationCredit:
Clara Molden

Like so many trend evolutions, this hip green renaissance is spreading from the style hothouse that is east London. Where once they came with their cocktails, food trucks and pop-up restaurants, now they’re here with their succulents and ferns, air plants and ivies, following a nurturing continuum from pop-ups to potting up.

Houseplants are excellent air purifiers, too. Common, easy-to-grow specimens such as ivies (Hedera helix), peace lilies (Spathiphyllum wallisii) and spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) score very highly in Nasa’s clean air study for removing formaldehyde, benzene and other pollutants from the indoor environment.

So if the house is looking a little bare, what better time to green up your interior with health-giving, mood-lifting, life-enhancing houseplants?

Direction change

Angela Maynard grew up in a flat in central London. “We rarely went on trips to the countryside. I spent a lot of time in Regent’s Park after school. I was also surrounded by plants because of my grandmother. She was Greek Cypriot and she lived in a tiny, tiny flat. She used to have plants outside and inside, she’d take care of the little garden in our square. It was very important to her.”

Angela Maynard, in her shop Botany in east LondonCredit:
Clara Molden

Angela describes the time when, after 12 years working in fashion, she realised plants were her future. “I broke up with my boyfriend and moved to a flat without a garden. The first houseplant I bought was a Swedish ivy. I was going through a difficult time and I managed to nurture that plant, keep it alive, and it felt like a real achievement. It kind of triggered the whole thing. I realised I’d been doing my job too long. I didn’t want to be that person who’s miserable at work.”

In 2014 Angela set up her shop, Botany. Plants tumble from ceramic, concrete, zinc and terracotta pots. (“It’s really hard to find nice pots. That’s probably our biggest struggle.”) It’s a calm and beautiful space, which reflects Maynard’s thoughtful intensity. The contrast with the grimy east London street outside is stark.

A living wall at BotanyCredit:
Clara Molden

“I have two different sorts of customers. The ones who want to nurture something and are really interested in it. Then those who want what I call 'fashion plants’. When you get 20 people coming in asking for the same plant, you know they’ve seen it on Pinterest. But they’re all creating their own little spaces indoors. You might not be living in your dream home, but you can personalise it. And you can take plants with you when you move.”

Pinterest rate

There’s nothing serene about Nik Southern’s east London shop. Young men and women work busily, potting up and creating arrangements at the central table. “They mostly find me off of Pinterest!” Nik laughs her trademark gutsy bark of a laugh.

“I grew up on a dodgy estate in Islington then we moved to Enfield when I was 14. I was in heaven – we had a 100ft garden! My mum was, like, 'Are you going to go and make any friends?’ But I was happy playing with the plants.” Nik worked in recruitment for 13 years before ditching corporate life for training with leading florist, Jamie Aston.

Nik Southern of Grace and ThornCredit:
Clara Molden

“On my first day I thought, 'oh my goodness, I’ve found it at last! Where I’m supposed to be!’ It took six months for her to get a break, when a friend hired her for a Whistles clothes launch. “My second job was doing the Chelsea in Bloom installation for LK Bennett and we won the People’s Choice Award. I hadn’t even done a wedding at that point!”

Nik has carved out a niche with her dramatic and exuberant style. It has won her a cool following – she describes a Giles Deacon fashion show on a Hammer horror theme, the cheeseplant chandeliers she created for fashion and interiors store House of Holland and cascades of dark foliage combined with grapes and pomegranates she put together for an opulent wedding. Last November, she put down roots in a second shop in Soho.

There’s nothing grand about her, though. She’s keen for everyone to have a go – check out her #greenupyourgaff hashtag.

“I think people can be intimidated. We have mums with babies coming in. They see a plant and say, 'Oh, I won’t be able to keep that alive’, and I’m, like, 'Well you’re doing all right keeping your kid alive’. People overthink it, they panic – just cut off the brown leaves, move it about a bit, watch your watering. Try something else!”

Homely touch

Emma Sibley and Tom Murphy are two friends who met at university and set up their company, London Terrariums, almost by accident just over a year ago.

Emma explains: “As students, most of us were living in grubby, cold shared houses. We bought plants to make them more homely.”

Tom adds: “We’re Generation Rent. You move every two years. You’re probably living in quite a small space. Plants can humanise that.”

Emma Sibley and Tom Murphy of London TerrariumsCredit:
Christopher Pledger

Emma says: “We just started making a terrarium one Saturday, without even really knowing it was a terrarium. Our friend asked us to put some in her café, with a business card. The orders started to come in and it grew from there.”

Their installations have appeared in cutting-edge menswear shop, The Dandy Lab, in Shoreditch, and their classes in pubs and shopsacross east London book up rapidly. In uncertain times, it seems creating a miniature world contained in glass, a world you can carry with you, strikes a chord with young leaf lovers.

The walls of their small studio are lined with shelves of neatly ordered plants.

But on the work bench, a certain Heath Robinson inventiveness reigns. No leaded glass terrariums here, but a host of demijohns, preserving jars and boiling flasks more usually found in a lab.

Emma cradles a small apple juice bottle. “I just put moss in it from the garden. I love it. I think this is where me and Tom differ from other people. People could look at that and be like, 'Oh, that’s horrible’. For me, it’s such a beautiful little object.”

A pot filled with tools sits at the back of the bench. Spoons, forks and corks are taped on to sticks.

Emma and Tom get to work at London TerrariumsCredit:
Christopher Pledger

Tom adds: “When we teach our classes, we say, 'Look, they’re not beautiful quality… go home and make them yourselves’. We’re not keen on leaded, geometric shapes or having little people in there. It’s not about that. It’s all about engagement with the beauty of the plants.”